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3 Surprising Ways to Feel Better This Week

Because pumpkin spice lattes or pictures of kittens can only take us so far. Whether Feeling Better means less chronic pain, more energy, less weight, more happiness, more time to do what you love with the people you love, or all of the above, you might be amazed at how well these three surprising, seriously effective solutions work to make you feel better instantly or in just a few days.

Surprising Way # 1: Shop only the outer perimeter of the grocery store

. . . and eat a Paleo-inspired menu for three days. It’s faster than trying to calculate a keto-macros menu, although in the long run that one might be more effective for you. Trying a 3-day Paleo-type menu is a quick-win experiment to cut out inflammatory foods and see how much better you feel physically and mentally.

For the first two days, your body may feel like it’s adjusting, but stick with it for three days and pay special attention to how you feel – and think more clearly – at the end of the third day.

While Paleo may not be a long-term solution for a lot of us (myself included), it works for many of us at least short term by giving our bodies a much-needed break from most inflammatory foods whose symptoms we’ve gotten so used to.

Gluten, cane sugar, caffeine and genetically modified produce wreak havoc on our neural and immune systems, and by removing them you may be shocked (as I was the first time I tried it) how much the everyday foods we consume from the middle aisles of the grocery store are drugging our brains and bodies.

Side effects of this experiment may include (towards the end of the three days) more physical energy, less back and joint pain, lighter limbs, more mental clarity, better sleep, more motivation, actual desire to exercise, clearer skin, weight loss, singing in the shower, looking at your co-workers’ lunches with secret disdain, better Uber passenger ratings, adopting a puppy, more Facebook likes, and even a lighter grocery bill. Imagine if you tried it for 30 days! But no worries, start with three days and see what happens.

PS- I know, the caffeine one is tough – try to cut it out or down if you can (especially after 2:00pm). The most important goal here is to eat only pure foods and water for a few days. If you miss your canned drinks, try LaCroix – it’s filling break room fridges and Instagram feeds everywhere for good reason!

Remember, this is not a diet – it’s just a test to create a baseline for how you feel when you take all that stuff out. Tally the results and then make adjustments, slowly adding things back in, and checking how you feel.

Surprising Way #2: Every morning when you wake up, say “I’m so happy and grateful that…”

I call this ISHAGT for short. Fill in the blank with anything from “I’m alive and breathing” to “I have a job,” “I get to try a yummy smoothie for breakfast,” “My kids are happy, healthy and smart,” “My partner loves me,” “I’m going to rock this outfit today,” “I’m going on vacation soon,” etc.

OK, being grateful for the little things (and the big things) is not a novel concept for Feeling Better. But start there and expand your ISHAGT to everything that happens to you. Move from being a victim of any circumstance to being an absorber of astounding good luck from any circumstance. This is what I mean when I’m constantly telling people I’m the luckiest girl in the world. And the thing is, I really, really am. Like, literally nothing bad ever happens to me anymore. Yeah right? Watch this.

For example, let’s say you hit traffic on the way to work. Instead of getting mad, tell yourself you’ll arrive when you get there, that in one year or even one week from now, no one will remember or care that you were 10 minutes late to work, and then find a podcast, or extend your favorite playlist. Say, “I’m so happy and grateful I have a few extra minutes to rock out and learn something new that will help me in my job (or my DREAM job later). I’m so happy and grateful that I’m not hurt or stranded on the side of the road and that no one is staring at me as they drive by.” BOOM- my life just improved threefold – I’m safe, happy and progressing toward my even happier future, all in one fell swoop.

Or, say you stub your toe. Have a good cry (of course) and then say, “I’m so happy and grateful that I slowed down to take care of myself for a minute. And spied my car keys there under the couch!” The whole silver lining thing. You get it.

So here’s the trickier but really powerful application. Fix in your mind’s eye where you want to be a few months from now. And then every morning from right now until it happens, wake up, grin, feel huge joy in your heart, and say “I’m so happy and grateful that I got that enormous project done on time and under budget, and that my family and I are LOVING this awesome vacation to the Magic Kingdom, and that I’m able to truly enjoy it without worrying about work or money!”

Wait, what? We’re supposed to be happy and grateful for something that hasn’t even happened yet?

It’s the pizza delivery of a lifetime. We are all, collectively, One, and when we put our energy towards a desire, the WOmanifested desire comes back to us, on time, for the agreed price, matching that energetic description pretty darn well.

Frozen Kareoke reference aside, the thing you need to let go this week could be:

A. A physical thing you’ve been meaning to get rid of, or
B. (Level 2 difficulty) Guilt over doing or not doing something, or
C. (Level 3 difficulty) A feeling towards a person.

We hold on to objects, and to and feelings – like grudges, guilt and fear – far too long. Even one hour is too long, let alone years and years.

And the thing is, the people we’ve frozen in time in these feelings deep in our hearts often don’t even know we’ve frozen them there. So – psst – they won’t know if you let go. There shouldn’t be any loss of pride in saying to yourself, “You know what, that person doesn’t control my feelings anymore, I let that grudge or guilt go.” Yay! It can be just as simple as that.

It’s not, though, I know. So when you find yourself slipping back, by habit, into negative thought patterns about that person or situation, start a new habit of replacing those thoughts with “I’m so happy and grateful that that person no longer controls my thoughts, and that I am the mistress of my mind, and that I choose to focus on things that are meaningful to me.”

At the very least, find an object or a pile of papers you’re sick of looking at, and let it go, a.k.a. throw it away. This will clear a bit of your physical space this week, which is equally important. The room’s energy will literally change, and you’ll be compelled to try it with a couple more piles of stuff. Then you’ll suddenly find you have more room to do a project on that clean table, eat dinner with your family all together, or just invite friends over on a whim without having to clear the table.

Other side effects of Letting Physical Stuff Go will definitely include a corner of your home looking Pinterest-worthy, giving you more energy, more clarity, more creativity, and more time to spend doing fun things instead of cleaning or looking for that invoice.

In a similar vein, Letting Go of Emotional Stuff, like guilt or a grudge, will yield such dangerous side effects as sleeping better, standing up straighter, laughing more, and being more focused on the things that really matter to you, like writing songs or reading books to kids or watching the sunset from your porch with someone you love.

In fact, this Way of Feeling Better is so important that I actually offer an entire gentle, loving course around just Letting Go and facing our Emotional Clutter. It opens in January, 2018.

I realize these are kind of heavy-weight assignments for feeling better, but they actually lead to fast, amazing results once you try them. Go for the quick wins this week by putting these three hurdles on your calendar and leaping them like the SuperWoman you are. You’ll feel fantastic and ready to try more.

And the side effects of that victory will be actually clearing your Space to Smile of all that junky food, thought, and physical clutter once and for all, so you can finally get back to being Wonderful You and doing what you’re meant to do in this world.

You can do this! If you’re ready to try my diet-free, 4-step process to start clearing your Space to Smile by the holidays, join my 4-week, live coached course now: